Story a Day…ish?

Almost immediately after posting my oh-so-lofty declaration of intent, I got sick. Really, really sick. Sick enough to consider going to the doctor, which is something I rarely ever do by choice. That, combined with a heavy workload and one serious bout of insomnia, made me cranky and lazy (okay…lazier) and mentally fuzzy. My “story a day” turned into “half stories, half drabbles, a whole lot of nothing” in a hurry.

As it stands right now, I’ve written something for 5 out of 9 days (not counting today, obviously, since the day’s only just begun) this month. It’s not a great track record, and I’m a bit disappointed with myself for failing on the second day, but it’s better than nothing. Now that I feel better–albeit still sleep deprived, which is nothing new–I’m working on setting practical goals for the rest of the month and utilizing every tool I can get my hands on to keep myself on track.

I started a bullet journal, which is totally hipster of me, but the neurotic, list making side of my personality finds a deep sense of satisfaction in setting up task lists and checking things off. It’s a strong visual reminder of what I’ve done vs. what I’ve put off until tomorrow, too, and the guilt I feel when I’m visibly procrastinating is usually enough of a motivator to get me to open a new Word doc and pretend to write, at the very least.

I’m going to be posting here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. About what? Who the hell knows. Maybe it’ll be personal stuff. Maybe I’ll talk about my writing progress and/or struggles for the week. Maybe I’ll post a story or two. Or I’ll get drunk and ramble until I pass out or get bored. The point is, expect to see me blogging a bit more regularly…for better or worse.

On the Story a Day front–I think I need to approach this differently. I have a tendency to get too wordy (no shit, right?), and the stories tend to grow until they’re way too complex to be finished in a day. Instead of trying to write a full-length story–and inevitably burning out before I reach the end–I’m going to limit myself to 100 word drabbles daily, and one longer short story to finish by the end of each week.

Baby steps, right?

Other than that, I’m reading more, sketching more, jotting down new ideas/concepts at they come, etc. I haven’t quite met my goals so far, but I’m making progress, and any progress is good progress. I’ll take it as a win.